David MacKay’s Last Interview

I saw an interesting news item this morning reporting that at one point last Sunday about 87% of Germany’s energy needs were supplied by renewable sources. The circumstances that led to this were relatively short-lived, but it is interesting nevertheless. I keep an eye on the UK’s national grid statistics from time to time and it rarely exceeds 20% in the form of renewables.

Anyway, all that reminded me of this, which appeared in the Guardian a couple of weeks weeks ago. It’s the last interview recorded by David Mackay before his untimely death from cancer in April. He’s characteristically direct in pointing out that the idea that the UK could be powered entirely by renewable energy is not at all practicable.